Erebus Motorsport is moving into performance running at its shakedown of the Brodie Kostecki #99 Chevrolet Camaro Supercar at Winton.
Erebus and Tickford Racing are each shaking down a Gen3 car at the rural Victorian circuit, with Kostecki having notched up about 40 laps in Car #99 and Thomas Randle a similar figure in the #55 Ford Mustang, as at 12:30 local time/AEDT.
“Good; no real issues,” Erebus CEO Barry Ryan told Speedcafe.com of their day so far.
“Couple of little things we’re just tinkering away with but generally, car build’s fine.
“We’re just trying to learn the car and what might come loose and what might not come loose, and give feedback to other teams.
“We’ve been working with Tickford a bit, just making sure we’re all on the same page. Anything that’s controlled, we’re best to work together.
“Performance-wise, so far, we’re happy. Engineers have done a good job, seems like they’ve got the balance they wanted pretty close out of the gate, so, ready to go racing.”
The #99 Camaro spent time in the garage during the morning with what Ryan advised was a clutch bleed issue which is a known quantity in the field, and recently stopped on-track just prior to Turn 10.
As was the case for the Blanchard Racing Team Mustang at its shakedown, fuel run-out is said to be the cause.
“Just a fuel run-out thing, because there’s no level sensor yet,” explained Ryan.
“So, we’ve now found out is that, as soon as you get a warning, as soon as you get any sort of fuel spike, you don’t make it back to the pits.
“Everybody’s the same. There’s one sensor that hasn’t arrived yet and that tells whether you’re about to go into the pot, and we now know that there’s no leeway. It’s something you need to learn.”
He added, “Straight out of the gate now we’re just trying to make the car faster.
“There’s no gremlins really; just always going to be little things that’ll pop up, which is not unexpected.
“The best thing is, the car’s been put together properly, there’s nothing that’s been an issue because of assembly.”
Tickford notched up 104 laps when Cameron Waters shook its #6 Mustang down last week, with Ryan hopeful of a similar total for the #99 Erebus entry today.
Shakedowns are ordinarily limited to 60km per car, but daily mileage is unlimited during this pre-season.
Will Brown is also in attendance at Winton today but will get his first laps in his #9 Erebus Camaro tomorrow.
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